In their South Coast Conference opener on Wednesday, the Cerritos College volleyball team got a boost from the Falcons baseball team, who cheered them on the entire match. The Falcons (6-6, 1-0) posted an exciting 25-21, 25-23, 28-25 win over El Camino College (5-9, 0-1). The team will travel to Los Angeles Harbor College on Friday for another 6:00 p.m. conference match.

The first set started slow for Cerritos, who fell behind, 7-3 to start and then trailed, 13-7. The Falcons slowly started to make their move back into the match on a pair of Warrior attack errors and a kill from sophomore Evelyn Soto-Castro (Schurr HS). The team eventually pulled ahead 15-14 when freshman Jordin Lewis (Warren HS) slammed home a pair of kills, along with Soto-Castro. El Camino was able to regain the lead, 18-15 and then 21-18 until the Falcons scored the final seven points and took the first set. Soto-Castro added two more kills, while a service ace from Gabriella Colombo (Cerritos HS) provided the winning point of the set.

Cerritos held leads of 12-7 and 18-13 in the second set until El Camino came on strong and scored points in bunches. With their lead down to 22-21, the Falcons came out of a timeout and scored a point on a service error, while another one gave the team a 24-22 lead. Serving set point, the Falcons could not contain Amiekel Looney, who slammed home a kill and gave the Warriors a chance to extend the set. But freshman Elizabeth Beltran (Santa Fe HS) was there to give the Falcons a 2-0 sets lead with her kill.

The third set saw the lead change hands four times early on. The last lead by Cerritos in the set was 13-12, with the team playing from behind until the won the set. Each time served set point twice, the El Camino missing their chance to win the set with two of their 12 service errors coming in a crucial time of the match. Trailing, 26-25, the Falcons received kills from freshman Tiffany Teats (Warren HS) and Beltran, with Lewis service up an ace to clinch the match.

Soto-Castro (14 kills, nine digs) and Lewis (13 kills, 12 digs) both played solid matches, while freshman setter Minerva Rodriguez (Gahr HS) stepped into her new role and recorded 34 assists and added 10 digs. Freshman libero Roselyn Tobie (Maxine Waters HS) led the back row with 25 digs, with Columbo serving up four aces and provided 11 digs, while Beltran finished with seven kills.

Photos by Daryl Peterson